Republican Reconciliation Bills Reflect Wrong Priorities

Democrats and Republicans agree on the importance of reducing the deficit, but we disagree on how to do it. House Republicans are using fast-track procedures provided under budget reconciliation to hasten passage of some of their budget resolution's priorities: cutting vital services and shredding the social safety net while preserving costly additional tax breaks for millionaires.

Their budget resolution directed six committees to make recommendations that reduce the deficit by $261 billion over the 2012-2022 period. The attached paper by the Budget Committee Democratic staff describes the Republican recommendations, which include:

increasing the number of children, senior citizens, and others without health insurance;

cutting food assistance to children, the frail elderly, and struggling families; and

eliminating the Social Services Block grant, which supports Meals on Wheels and child protective services for at-risk children, among other services.

The recommendations reflect the Republican budget's unbalanced approach to deficit reduction, one that focuses only on cutting spending rather than also closing tax loopholes or asking millionaires to contribute one extra cent to deficit reduction. These choices reflect the wrong priorities for America.